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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29593221">Rough and Tumbl</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draconicmaw/pseuds/Draconicmaw'>Draconicmaw</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bits and pieces from my tumblr, Dragon AU, F/M, I give you... Seto fanboying over dragon Atem, Kissing, M/M, You're Welcome, and also random stuff I had posted there, includes asks and requests, lots and lots of kissing starting in chapter 3, welp no helping it -- guess we have nsfw stuff for sure now</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:22:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,514</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29593221</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draconicmaw/pseuds/Draconicmaw</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of snippets/ficlets I have posted on <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/draconicmaw">my tumblr</a>. One of my lovely followers told me it would be a good idea to cross-post, so here I am, cross-posting.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Atem/Kaiba Seto, Atem/Kujaku Mai | Mai Valentine, Atem/Mahaado | Mahad, Atem/Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner, Atem/Mutou Yuugi, Bakura Ryou/Thief King Bakura, Kaiba Seto/Mutou Yuugi, Kaiba Seto/Yami Yuugi, Kaiba Seto/Yami Yuugi | Atem, Kujaku Mai | Mai Valentine/Yami Yuugi, Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner/Yami Yuugi, Mutou Yuugi/Yami Yuugi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>62</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Burning Skies (Prideshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I decided that if I was going to do this, it would be the whole nine yards, so I went digging through all my posts on tumblr to find little snippets and bits that I had written that I could post here. That being said, the first couple are almost over a year old.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>Kaiba froze where he was crouched in the brambles.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>In the clearing, the massive beast slumbered. Great sleek expanses of ruby red scales. The underbelly plating was glittering gold and abyssal charcoal. The wings, one furled and the other tucked over the huge head, were stripes of gold and black and scarlet all nestled starkly against one another. The broad red back rose and fell with each of the beast's sleepy breaths. The tail, thick yet elegant and tipped with golden bolt-shaped spikes, was curled delicately over four sets of relaxed, formidable talons.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Kaiba gulped. It was huge, yes, but it was small for a dragon, even a male one. But what it lacked in size it made up for in sheer majesty and color. He wished it would move its head or its wing so he could see its resplendent head.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But he made to slowly step back. It was better to let the bull sleep than awaken him. If Kaiba valued his life.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But a low, rumbling voice -- so deep Kaiba felt his very bones vibrate -- cut through the air and over the whispering of the leaves and the grass.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I know you're there," it would have been booming like thunder if any louder, but now it was soft and sleepy.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Rustling -- that wing was moving, the long neck flexing, and then piercing violet eyes were squinting over at him. Red and black crests flared with curiosity, and long golden horns caught the streaming sunlight and flashed like fire.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Its tired huff of breath was audible. It shifted its position, more upright but still laying, wings tucked delicately at its sides.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Come out. It's only polite to introduce yourself," the dragon continued, and though its deep voice was formidable and frightening, it held no malice. "It is, after all, quite rude to watch one as he sleeps." The long neck curved like that of a swan, and the magnificent head tilted.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Kaiba stared up at the sky a moment. Shit. If the beast decided that Kaiba was of poor company, he'd surely be roasted alive.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And Seto Kaiba wasn't exactly known for his splendid social skills.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But he carefully parted the bracken and stepped onto the uneven ground of the clearing.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He watched sharp violet eyes assess him quietly. His heart throbbed, and the blood rushing through his head made him dizzy and his vision blur. The beast turned its head away, and the great jaws parted -- fangs and tusks flashing -- in an impressive yawn.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Pardon," the dragon murmured, wings tensed and flexing, a stinted stretch. It shook its head as if to banish the last of its sleepiness, and Kaiba was mesmerized by the flashing of scale, crest and horn. But then those violet eyes were suddenly affixed to him again, and the intensity and curiosity lurking deep within them made Kaiba shiver. "Mind if I ask for your name, human?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Kaiba's fingers trembled, but he tightened them into a fist. "Kaiba. Seto Kaiba." His voice came out more composed than he thought it would. It even sounded terse, confrontational, his usual tone when he wasn't awestruck by majestic red beasts reclining in dappled sunlight.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Seto Kaiba," the dragon intoned slowly, the tip of its tail flicking again.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Something shuddered beneath Kaiba's skin.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Now you tell me yours," he choked out, somewhat amazed he could be so demanding in the face of such a beast. Humans were pathetic and easily swayed and intimidated, but this was a fucking dragon.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>A fucking <em>dragon</em>.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The dragon tipped its head and hummed. It was a low, soft sound, but it rumbled through that armored chest like a growl. "Atem."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Strange name for a dragon," Kaiba snorted.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>A chuckle, it seemed, shook those plated shoulders. "Perhaps." The head lowered, more on eye level with Kaiba, and the crystalline depths of those violet eyes struck him dumb. "What brings you to these woods, so far from others of your kind, Seto Kaiba?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>His tongue was heavy in his mouth, but he managed to grit out, "Like it's any of your damn business."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The head arched back, crests flaring, and Kaiba's mouth went dry, but Atem seemed to find no offense. If anything, the dragon seemed amused. "Now, that's no way to talk. And of course it's my business -- this forest is my home, and I'd like to know the intentions of my visitors."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I'd heard there was a dragon here. I'm a little disappointed. Figured it would be full-grown."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Kaiba nearly slapped himself. It wouldn't be the first time that his lack of a brain-to-mouth filter would get him in trouble, but it would probably be his first and <em>last</em> time getting singed to ashes for it.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But Atem snorted, and the faint smell of wood smoke drifted on the air. "Big talk from a frail human. Tell me, when you heard this tale, were you hoping to slay the dragon? Are you here to kill me as I sleep, Seto Kaiba?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"No," Kaiba scoffed.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The bull hummed again, and it delicately crossed its forelegs. Massive black talons flexed languidly into grass and earth. Kaiba imagined those ghastly claws rending men into gory pieces. "Then for what did you seek?" Those brilliant eyes were shuttered by red lids before they were once again focussed unnervingly on Kaiba's face.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I…" he paused and took a deep breath. He tasted sun and forest and fire. The beast seemed to bring with it the smell of ashes and flame. "I came here to see you."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem laughed, a thunderous sound, but it was melodic like the warbling of a songbird. Those crimson haunches bunched, scaled feet easily finding purchase on the grass, and then Atem was standing, so much more foreboding. Yes, he was a small dragon, but he towered over Kaiba, with his long, graceful neck and muscular tail and flaring wings that flushed brighter with color as they caught the dappled sunlight.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"And have you seen enough?" Those wings expanded further, and the deep voice was challenging but thick with humor.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Kaiba's breath caught in his throat, and his mind reeled with gold and black and the most beautiful ruby red and deep violet.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"No, I have not."</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Clingy (Regalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Regalshipping, I think this ship is called...? Anyway, the request was for a drabble challenge, the prompt being "We've become the clingy couple you used to complain about."</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>She supposed she shouldn't get... these feelings anymore when he did these things.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I'm leaving," Mai announced, her keys dangling from her fingertips and her pumps already on.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem's eyes never left the newspaper -- he absolutely <em>refused</em> to use the tablet Kaiba had forced on him, out of principle or for his sensitive eyesight was still a debate for all parties involved -- but his head tilted just so, his hair shifting and the light glancing off of his reading glasses.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>She paused, like she did every time he presented his cheek to her. But this pause was long enough that his vivid, sparkling eyes met hers. He tapped a long finger on the flawless [she was so envious of his naturally clear and clean complexion] skin of his cheek. "Don't I get my farewell kiss, Mai?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>She blinked and leaned down for a peck. Her lipstick smacked softly on his cheek. She pulled away and hid her smirk at the faint mark it left behind. "There. I'm going now."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>His hand reached out and two fingers tenderly touched her wrist. "I'm going to miss you," he murmured, eyes still glued to her.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>She rolled her eyes, hoping the blush on her cheeks wasn't too noticeable. "I'm just going to the store, you big baby."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"So? That doesn't mean I won't rue every second you'll be away from me," he argued, newspaper forgotten, and his fingertips tickled her palm. He was playful, but she caught the genuine warmth beneath it. He lifted her hand to kiss her knuckle, and the way he looked up at her made her feel like some untouchable queen.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"You're so flowery. It's gross," she said with a melodramatic sigh, but those eyes -- like jewels in the sun -- warmed her, and she breathed out, "I'll miss you, too."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He smiled, then it turned into a smug grin, and she yanked her hand away from him. "You know, we've become the clingy couple you used to complain about," and the words purred with his laughter.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I'm leaving!" She snapped, flushed but with the corner of her lips twitching up.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Return to me soon, my beloved!" Atem called after her.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Oh, shut up!"</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I actually really enjoyed myself while writing this. This was a surprisingly fun pairing to make content for.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Soothe (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ah, yes. This begins my recent string of asks and requests on tumblr. This came from a kissing prompt, the prompt being "Kissing the tears from the other's face."</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>"Son of a --" Atem interrupted himself with a thick growl. The eraser rubbed across the paper with a ferocious vengeance, until the integral Atem had been stumbling his way through was nothing but a faded graphite smear and --</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>-- <em>rip</em> --</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>-- torn paper.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem hissed another curse, and his elbows thunked heavily onto the desk, his forehead in his hands. He didn't even care that the pencil was pressing uncomfortably into his temple as he stared down at his homework with hot, stinging eyes and jumbled, racing thoughts. His shoulders heaved with each fast breath, and he found himself sniffling.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>It was past midnight on a weekday, and he was so frustrated with his calculus homework that he was about to cry.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Gentle hands settled into his shoulders, and he gasped, startled. He looked up and back. Violet eyes, darker in the penumbra of Atem's desk lamp, blinked down, sleepy, empathetic, and fond. As if tethered to Atem's psyche by some sort of thread, he had sensed when he needed to intervene.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem quickly turned back to his paper. With those caring eyes gazing upon him so soulfully, the tears seemed to be bearing down harder, beating at the doors of his eyelids and tangling in an overwhelmed knot in his throat.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"G-Go back to bed, Yugi," he choked.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi hummed, and his hands languidly brushed down until his fingers interlocked on Atem's chest in a loose embrace. Yugi was leaning down, his chin on Atem's shaking shoulder. "Not unless you're coming with me."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"No." The pencil wobbled in Atem's unsteady fingers. "I need to get this done."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"It'll still be here in the morning, Atem," Yugi murmured. He softly nuzzled just under Atem's jaw.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The tears finally bested Atem's stalwart defenses that had long been worn down by mounting exhaustion and festering frustration. "I just don't <em>understand</em>," Atem choked wetly.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"You and most people," Yugi supplied gently. His warm hand turned Atem's chin. "Oh, sweetheart," he breathed, and he pressed his lips to Atem's cheek, right over a glistening tear track. "You're tired--" The other cheek. "-- overwhelmed --" The first one again. "-- frustrated..." The other cheek, all while he petted Atem's hair soothingly. "Come to bed, sleep on it. I'm sure it will all be a little clearer in the morning."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>As always, Yugi was the soothing balm to Atem's rough and raw afflictions. Mollified, Atem slumped forward until his forehead rested against's Yugi's neck.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi's hands rubbed soothing circles on Atem's back. "Does that sound like a good plan?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>A small nod.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi smiled, sleepy and soft.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The calculus homework was abandoned until morning, and Yugi gave Atem another soft, lingering kiss on the cheek before they settled under the sheet and blanket.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Quiet, rippling gently in the dark. "Thank you, aibou."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"... Of course."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I love you."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I love you, too, Atem."</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Sweat (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Another kissing prompt for puzzleshipping, this one for "weak and sweaty kisses because it's unbearably hot"</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>It was 38 degrees Celsius (just over 100 degrees Fahrenheit) that day. The dark asphalt and unforgiving concrete of the metropolis only trapped and compounded the heat. Towards Domino City's center, it was 42 degrees (just under 108 Fahrenheit). In the street just outside their apartment, the temperature sat pretty at 40 boiling degrees.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>In other words, it was a terrible day to have a broken AC unit, and Yugi's luck just so happened to be that spectacularly bad.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>All the windows were open. Even then, the breeze that came in was thick and sluggish and smelling of a city baking beneath the summer sun. Yugi was tempted to huddle under the spray of the shower, but even that was on the warm side of lukewarm, and he could hardly afford to have his water bill racking up that like. That relegated him to languishing on the couch in nothing but some ratty shorts with the beat-up box fan blowing into him. Frankly, it just moved the hot air around, but it was better than nothing.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Over the sound of cars hissing and roaring through the streets below, the jangling of keys echoed from the entrance. Yugi hummed, waved his foot off the arm of the couch, and took a long drink from his water bottle. Atem was home.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The door creaked open, then groaned shut. Keys tinkled onto the small table in the entryway. Atem sighed, long and low, as he kicked off his footwear and ambled into the living room.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I'm absolutely miserable," Yugi groaned pitifully.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I can see that," Atem replied, his voice wavering with amusement. He was just standing there looking all collected and cool and composed in his white T-shirt and khaki board shorts. The bastard.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Of course, 40 degrees was just an average summer day in Egypt.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi rolled aside as Atem perched his butt right on the edge of the couch cushions.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I got ahold of the landlady while I was out," Atem murmured, stroking his fingers through Yugi's hair, humid with sweat.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi grunted, eyes sliding closed. "You're an angel."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"She apologized profusely and contacted a repairman immediately," Atem added. He leaned down to press his lips to Yugi's temple.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"<em>Ewww</em>, don't kiss me," Yugi whined, weak, slippery hands pushing at Atem's chest. "I'm all sweaty and gross."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem chuckled, low and purring, his fingertips catching at Yugi's chin. "It wouldn't be the first time that I kissed you when you were hot and sweaty--" He winked saucily. "--and I doubt it will be the last."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi laughed, cheeks hot from more than just the unbearable temperatures, and conceded Atem's point. He didn't push Atem away the next time he leaned down for a kiss, this time on the lips. It was slow, the way Yugi mouthed back, wan from the heat and from the affection swelling in his heart.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem made a low, pleased noise in the back of his throat, his thumb lightly stroking along Yugi's jaw.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi shivered, toes curling.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"The repairman won't be here until three," Atem murmured against Yugi's lips.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi hummed.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"That gives us plenty of time to take a cool shower before he gets here," Atem breathed.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi's laugh pealed brightly in the heavy air, and Atem kissed at his chin. "Yeah, like you just want to <em>shower</em>."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem reeled upright, clutching a hand over his heart. "You doubt my intentions? I'm wounded."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Shut up and start the shower, Romeo."</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It was supposed to be wholesome and then Flirty Atem appeared out of nowhere and took the steering wheel. He pops up at the most random times.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Get Your Game On (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Another kiss prompt, this time with a stipulation for Flirty Atem with Yugi, and a kiss prompt of my choice. I picked "brushing a kiss along the shell of the other person's ear."</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>The television flashed with a myriad of lights. Colorful little characters in their colorful little vehicles raced along their colorful track that defied the laws of physics to twist and twine through starry space like a bright ribbon. It was the most difficult track in the game. The tip of Yugi's tongue poked from between his lips.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He was <em>so close</em>, he just knew it.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>They only had one controller; the other finally went caput some weeks ago. It was well-loved and had quite the vigorous career, so it was no surprise when, one day, the analog sticks simply refused to work anymore. They kept discussing the purchase of another one, but held off in favor of more pressing financial matters.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>So, one controller remained.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>No longer could he and Atem compete on the same track at the same time. (Perhaps that was for the best -- facing against one another baited their respective competitive spirits into a brutal struggle where no holds were barred and nothing was sacred.) Instead, they raced at separate times, the transparent "ghost" of the other player serving as their opponent. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it meant that their avatars could not directly sabotage the other's progress.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The <em>avatars</em> couldn't. That didn't mean the players didn't try.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi just expertly drifted around a rather difficult curve on the second lap when he felt it; a warm aura drifted close, and the heat of Atem's breath filtered through the material of Yugi's shirt to tickle the flesh of his shoulder. Atem had leaned into his palm, pressed to the floor on Yugi's other side. His head hovered just over Yugi's shoulder, and when Yugi shifted just so, his arm brushed Yugi's back and his chest briefly came into contact with Yugi's side. With his peripheral vision, Yugi could discern that Atem wasn't even looking at the TV. No, his eyes, gleaming in the light from the screen, were locked onto Yugi's face.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Pursing his lips, Yugi ignored the heat in his cheeks and the enemy looming at his back in favor of dodging a minefield of banana peels on the track. Atem had the grace to let him clear the obstacle, but any trace of it quickly faded away soon after. Atem tilted his head down to press his mouth to the fabric of Yugi's shirt. He was still for several moments, letting the heat of his breath through his nose do the work for him as Yugi began to twitch underneath the attention.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>With a hiss, Yugi shrugged his shoulder. The motion dislodged Atem, but he just leaned <em>closer</em>. His nose skimmed just over where the collar of Yugi's shirt ended, and he exhaled hotly. Yugi shuddered, and his shoulders shot up.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"<em>Atem</em>," Yugi tried to snap, but he felt betrayed that even <em>he</em> knew that he didn't sound mad.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The sensitive expanse of Yugi's neck now protected by a prolonged shrug, Atem went for the last chink in Yugi's armor...</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Warm, humid breaths fluttered at Yugi's ear, and he didn't have the time to respond before he felt the flash of teeth and tongue and lips on the delicate cartilage. Then, the coup de gras --</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>-- Atem made a sound, low and dark and sending all of the nerves in Yugi's neck into a prickling frenzy --</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi gasped, and his avatar went skidding off the track to plunge into the starry abyss of space.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>-- Did Atem just <em>moan</em>?!</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi turned his head to gape at Atem, who simply stared back with a small but no less impish smile on his stupidly handsome face.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>After Yugi was reeled back onto the track, it was too late. He was too far into the third lap to make up for lost time, to beat Atem's ghost. Yugi paused the game.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"What the hell, Atem!" Yugi exclaimed, voice a little rough. "You promised you would keep your hands to yourself!"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem arched one defined brow. That <em>smirk</em> of his was growing, dimpling his cheeks. "I <em>did</em> keep my hands to myself."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi huffed, flustered. "Well, it was still cheating."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem leaned closer then, his eyes dark and half-lidded, and each syllable fell from his lips onto Yugi's with a slow sort of intensity, "Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?"</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Kissing in the Dark (Rivalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ugh, you guys, Rivalshipping makes me want to actually SCREAM. I love it so much, and I was so happy to get a kiss prompt request for them. The prompt was "tentative kisses given in the dark."</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>Kaiba Seto was a different man in the dark, Yugi came to realize that night.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Illuminated by stage lights, Kaiba Seto was headstrong and cocksure. His palpable confidence was his trademark, his proud stance his calling card. The public persona of Kaiba Seto had a smirk that was condescending and words that were even more so, and he had the air of a man who could more than handle anything thrown at him.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But here, in the intimate dark of his bedroom, that Kaiba Seto was no where to be found.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi sighed pleasantly, cushioned against satin sheets and soft pillows. Seto hovered above, but he was tense, and though he was kneeling between Yugi's legs, their only point of contact was between their lips.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Whatever Yugi had been expecting, it definitely wasn't kisses sweet with caution and hesitation and inexperience. Here, in the dark, Kaiba Seto was vulnerable, baring a soft, bleeding part of himself he'd never dared to expose to anyone before.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The kisses were brief but pleasant, but Yugi wanted more, <em>needed</em> more.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He slowly lifted his hands up and Seto jerked, startled for a moment, before he settled and let Yugi cup his warm, warm cheeks. Yugi cradled his face close, thumbs skimming tenderly over high cheekbones, and he sighed quietly, "Seto," before kissing him again. Longer, firmer but at the same time softer, gently coaxing.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto's lips loosened where they were meeting Yugi's motions, and his hand tightened audibly in the blankets before it came to shakily touch Yugi's face in turn. Yugi hummed, quiet and pleased, and turned his head just so to press his lips to Seto's thumb.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>A rough exhale fluttered against Yugi's cheek.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi trailed his hand up higher, until his fingers were tangling in warm, silky hair, close to the scalp, and the other arm slowly twined around Seto's neck to coax him down, closer. Seto sank willingly, his waist cradled by Yugi's hips, his hand sliding under the pillow until his elbow was braced upon the mattress, his lips brushing Yugi's cheek from the proximity. He relaxed under Yugi's gentle hands and tender kisses, until his lips were pliant and simply reactive to every small motion.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Kaiba Seto was a different man in the dark, but Yugi hoped that this man wouldn't stay in the dark forever.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I JUST WANT TO SQUEEZE THEM. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH AHHHHH</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. It's Always Sunny in Domino (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was a puzzle/blindshipping kiss prompt with two prompts that I combined, "accidental brush of lips followed by a pause and going back for another on purpose" and "wet kisses after finding refuge from the rain."</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>The forecast held no mention of precipitation. Nothing, not even the lightest spittle or thin misting of rain, nothing but sunshine and clear blue skies. In fact, for most of the day, bright yellow light poured over Domino City and seeped down through the lush spring canopy of the trees to dapple the grass and sidewalk in shifting patterns.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>In other words, it was a beautiful day for a walk through the weekly pop-up market in Domino City's arboretum. Yugi, personally, never thought much about it, but Atem expressed great interest in attending. Local vendors set up stands to sell crafts and homemade treats, all often styled after Duel Monsters, as was the ubiquitous theme in this town. But it was more than just an interest in the merchandise that drew Atem here every weekend.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"The market, the people, the food," Atem listed one time as he fondly watched a pair of children dash in front of them to chase each other between the stands. "It all reminds me of a place and time far removed from here and now."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He had regaled Yugi with tales of outsmarting the royal guards to escape into the city beyond the palace gates where he would, in his childish naivety and generosity, trade gold earrings and finely crafted bracelets for street food and cheap-but-well-made trinkets.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"It's amazing," Atem had added, with that faraway look in his eyes, "that no matter how much humans have evolved and invented, some things simply remain unchanged."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>It gave Yugi fresh eyes through which to see. What he once regarded as something simple and mundane, he now viewed as worthy of the utmost respect and awe. He grew to enjoy their wanderings through the market, though perhaps not as much as Atem, but he found himself having fun, anyways.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Which meant that he was also disappointed when the dark clouds flocked from over the horizon to gather about Domino City in a foreboding blanket of gray. One or two drops fell, and then it was as if the sky was torn asunder. The water started to crash down in opaque sheets.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi gasped, yanked forward by Atem's hand -- warm and already slicked by the downpour -- wrapped firmly about his wrist.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem tugged him into a run. The soles of their shoes slapped wetly first over drenched sidewalks, then over soggy grass. Yugi heard a sound over the roaring of the rain, and it took a second for him to place it.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem was laughing, his shoulders shaking, wet fingers slipping from Yugi's wrist to catch at his hand instead. Shirt slicked to his back and hair clinging to his face and water beading on his lashes, Yugi couldn't help but join in as they dashed hand-in-hand through the torrent.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The huge tree in the center of the park loomed before them, and Atem pulled Yugi along until they were crashing together against the trunk. Laughing, wet, and breathless, they turned their gazes behind them, where, in the distance, vendors were hurrying to pull their merchandise beneath the portable awnings.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem made a noise, low and displeased, and Yugi hardly noticed how it vibrated from Atem's ribs into his where they were still pressed together.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"What is it?" Yugi asked, and Atem laughed again in response.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem lifted his hand. The treat he had purchased earlier -- fried dough balls slathered in honey -- were already a soggy, mushy mess. "I do not think these are salvageable."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I concur with that assessment," Yugi giggled.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>With a dramatic sigh, Atem turned his wrist, and the soggy pastries plopped to the ground with a <em>splat</em>!</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Laughing, they turned toward one another --</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>-- Their noses skimmed together, and their lips -- wet and parted for their heavy, giggling breaths -- brushed ever so slightly. Yugi gasped, and the gust of his breath on Atem's wet lips made his inhalation catch between his ribs.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Neither moved, the laughter fading away into the roar of the rain, and scarcely a breath was breathed in that still moment between them.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi would probably forever remember that moment -- the way Atem's eyelashes clung wetly to one another, the way his carmine eyes glistened, the way thinning trails of kohl eyeliner vined down his cheeks alongside gold strands of hair -- before Atem's hand, hot and slick and trembling, caught his cheek to pull him in for a <em>real</em> kiss.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Just as suddenly as it came, the rainstorm faded away and the clouds continued on their journey. The water stopped, and the sun came out to shimmer on the water left behind, but Atem and Yugi didn't stop kissing until well after.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Perhaps the rain wasn't so disappointing after all...</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Kiss Me (Rivalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>YASSSS another rivalshipping kiss prompt, this one for the prompt "a breathy demand: 'Kiss me' -- and what the other person does to respond."</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>Seto was completely aware that he wasn't known for "taking it slow." In fact, he actively fostered the image of a dauntless genius who threw himself face-first into all his endeavors and who always landed on his feet at the end of it all. That being said, he was nothing less than appreciative of Yugi's patient technique to deepening their relationship beyond that between rivals -- or even friends.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi seemed to be taking a gradual approach -- like the proverbial frog in the pot of water, where Seto was the frog and Yugi was the sick bastard with his hand on the burner dial. Though, in their actual scenario, sans analogies, "sick bastard" was the last phrase Seto would use to describe Yugi.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Honestly, Seto would use the terms "saintly" or "wonderful," though perhaps not to Yugi's face, or aloud at all.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Ever patient, ever understanding Yugi. Yugi gracefully backed off when the affectionate touches (to Seto's hands or arms or other innocuous places) became too much, because no matter how touch-starved Seto was, the stimuli could become overwhelming at times. Yugi was content to sit in peaceful, companionable silence when Seto had nothing to say, because sometimes words just weren't needed. Yugi didn't pry; Yugi let Seto process it all at his own pace; Yugi was nothing less than the picture-perfect romantic partner.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Today, Yugi seemed to be relishing in Seto's increased capacity for physical contact. First, as always, he'd brush his fingers, so small and soft but sure all the same, over Seto's knuckles. Then, sometime later, the pad of his pinky would skim ever so slightly over the inside of Seto's wrist and elicit a pleasant, ticklish feeling that had Seto's fingers twitching. Just when the space by Seto's palm began to feel so <em>empty</em>, Yugi's hand would gently sidle in to fill the void. Fingers threaded together, palm to palm, wrists crossing intimately over one another. Still, Yugi swirled his thumb gently over Seto's knuckles.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>When they sat down, Yugi was right next to him, their thighs and calves pressed together, and Yugi pulled Seto's hand into his lap to mindlessly play with his fingers and to absently trace the outlines of his nails and to slowly memorize the lines on his palms as his violet eyes, rounded, watched the screen in front of them.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And then, on the ride back to the game shop, Yugi would settle a hand on Seto's leg, close to the knee, as they rode in a contented, warm silence.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But when Seto walked Yugi -- saintly, patient Yugi -- up to the door, and saw the way Yugi's lips curved and the way his smile glinted in the sun light of the street lamps and the way his eyes blinked up, so warm and happy, at Seto, like there was no other place in all the world he would rather be -- Seto realized just how <em>tired</em> he was of waiting and <em>taking it slow.</em></p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Kiss me," he blurted, strangely breathy, as he cut off whatever Yugi had been about to say. Yugi's eyes widened, and Seto felt the heat blooming, thick and stinging, in his cheeks.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But then Yugi's smile brightened his face with his breathless amusement and fond giddiness. His hands settled into Seto's chest, and his little fingers curled into the soft fabric of Seto's shirt ever so slightly. "Come down here and I will."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto's lips twitched in response, a smile lurking just under the surface. "Why don't <em>you</em> come up <em>here</em>?" But he was already leaning down.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And Yugi was leaning up, twining toward him like vines reaching for the sun. "It would be pretty rude of me to just climb up your body every time I want to kiss you." He giggled, and Seto could feel the fluttering gust of it against his face. "Which is pretty often."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto hummed and, just before their lips touched, said, "I don't think I would mind."</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Jealous Puzzleshipping pt 1: Atem</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>One of my lovely followers dipped into my inbox to request some jealous puzzleshipping, one oneshot for each in the pair, and of course I delivered.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p></p><div class="">
  <p>Atem found Yugi undeniably adorable. And he meant "adorable" in its essential denotation; it was just so very easy to <em>adore</em> Yugi. Yugi was Atem's light, the axis upon which his world spun, the needle that always showed Atem true north when he lost his way in the puzzling maze of life. Yugi was not without his flaws, of course, but Atem found even those endearing.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>For what was more beautiful?</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>A perfect being? Or an imperfect being always striving to be better than his flawed nature?</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem believed it to be the latter, without a doubt.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem himself was not too much a selfish man, and, thus, he wanted to share this light with any who would be willing to see, because any good person would be worse off not knowing Yugi than they would knowing Yugi.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And though Yugi had always been resplendent as any sweet lotus in Atem's eyes, Yugi had simply <em>bloomed</em> in recent years. His lithesome frame took on a taller stance, now confident and comfortable in his skin in a way that was such a contrast to that day when they first met so many years ago. Instead of hesitation and fear and insecurity in those beautiful eyes of his, there was a keen perception and ageless wisdom that sometimes made Atem forget just who between the two of them was once an ancient spirit.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Besides that, Yugi had... grown in other ways, as well. (Summary: Yugi's newfound cardio routine was treating him [and Atem] very well.) In summation, Yugi was beautiful, inside and out, and, as his best friend and lover, Atem couldn't be any prouder or more satisfied.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>After all, Atem was no stranger to "strutting his stuff" when the time called for it, and sometimes that happened to include showing off his wonderful boyfriend because <em>who wouldn't?</em></p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Anyway, the main point was that, normally, when Yugi caught the eyes of people in public, Atem generally preened on his behalf.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But sometimes, even Atem found the wandering eyes to be too much.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Like now, as Yugi crouched down to inspect merchandise on the lower shelves in an aisle of the local grocery store. Yugi was wearing <em>those</em> pants, the ones that were snug before his exercise regimen began but now fit him like a second skin. They hugged his toned glutes especially right when he was positioned like so. It wasn't until a figure froze in Atem's peripheral vision that he realized he wasn't the only one <em>admiring</em> Yugi.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Subtly, he flocked his eyes in that direction. A woman stood there, frozen, hands limp on the handles of her shopping cart, her face blanked in an expression that clearly read "what a nice ass."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>When Yugi sighed and stood slowly, product in hand, Atem sidled close. Yugi hummed, still focused on the bottle in his hands, but he gasped and startled when Atem's hand grasped at his firm butt in a possessive squeeze.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Atem!" Yugi hissed, cheeks flushing darkly, but he was obviously trying to bite back a smile. "<em>What</em> are you doing?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Simply reminding the general public who has the right to touch your cute butt and who does not," Atem replied, matter-of-fact.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"You're so weird," Yugi muttered, but when he shook his head, Atem could see the little grin on Yugi's lips.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem looked over his shoulder. The woman was still standing there, gaping. Atem narrowed his eyes. Red-faced and empty-carted, she was on her way out of the aisle.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem wanted the whole world to see how wonderful Yugi was. They just had to remember who got to touch his butt, though.</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Jealous Puzzleshipping pt 2: Yugi</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Annnnnd this is the one with jealous Yugi</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p></p><div class="">
  <p>Yugi blinked across the table.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Is this served with rice?" Atem asked, one slender brown finger pointing to the text on the menu.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The waitress was all too eager to lean in, "All the ones with the asterisk are served with white rice."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I see. Thank you." Atem's eyes remained on his menu the entire time, but she stood up straight again looking far too pleased with herself, anyways.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi sucked his lips in to resist the urge to purse them. When they finally ordered, the waitress all but had hearts throbbing in her eye sockets as Atem calmly recited to her his order. Yugi, personally, felt like he was talking to a brick wall when telling her what he wanted, but, as always, he made sure to maintain his bright and friendly demeanor.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Sure, she was making eyes at his oblivious boyfriend, but that didn't mean she didn't still deserve basic human decency.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>However, Atem's lack of response to her not-so-subtle advances didn't seem to faze her. When she brought them their drinks, she even laid her hand on Atem's shoulder for the briefest of moments, which even roused a bewildered expression from the man in question.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Generally, it was difficult to get on Yugi's nerves. He had the patience of a saint, won by enduring many situations in which others might have crumbled.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>People would do as people would do, and there wasn't anything Yugi could do to change that, and he had long since accepted that fact.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But this waitress was on the fast track to grating his nerves right to the quick. Atem was clearly not interested, if not the way he was practically ignoring her then the way he was mooning over Yugi should have made that more than obvious.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>As she approached their table to deliver to them their food, Yugi reached forward, his hand inching across the table until his fingers brushed Atem's. At the touch, Atem's hand was immediately meeting his, and they tangled their fingers together. Atem's thumb swiped tenderly over Yugi's knuckles, and Yugi felt the tension draining from his shoulders.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But he had one last thing to do.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi leaned in, eyes hooded as he gave Atem <em>that look</em>. "Atem."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem's lips parted, his lurid irises darkening and glowing all at the same time. "What is it, Yugi?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi hummed, his lips curving flirtatiously. "I have a surprise waiting for you when we get home."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem's breath left his lungs in an audible huff, and he gave Yugi a sultry grin that always made his knees turn into jelly. "I'm looking forward to it."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Just then, their plates found their way onto the table. Yugi's eyes flicked to the waitress. Her lips were pursed, like she'd just sucked on a lemon drop expecting it to be chocolate sprinkle.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Good. Maybe now she would stop trying to out the moves on his boyfriend.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(Yugi didn't have a surprised planned, but he had more than enough time to come up with something. Atem would probably like it no matter what, anyways.)</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Rain (Rivalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Rivalshipping makes me want to actually cry, you guys. Ugh, a lovely person dropped in to leave a kiss prompt request for rivalshipping, with the prompt "wet kisses after finding refuge from the rain."</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>Each humid breath fogged the glass rhythmically. Yugi blinked up at the dark gray sky. Those billowing rain clouds, thick and fat and heavy with moisture, had finally begun to let loose their wet cargo. For now, the rain came down in a gentle spray of large droplets. It was a welcome change from the scornful, lashing tongue of monsoon season just weeks ago. The gentle hum and roar of it had Yugi sighing in content, fogging the glass before him with a great cloud for a moment before it faded away.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Are you just going to stand there all day?" Seto asked, quiet but still with his usual gruffness as he approached from behind.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi could see Seto's reflection in his peripheral vision, but he kept his eyes affixed skyward, even as his head tilted to the side. He contemplated the idea coalescing in the gray matter of his brain. "Perhaps not."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto scoffed, or maybe huffed, and the dregs of it tickled against Yugi's hair.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi smiled then, up at the impenetrable monochrome blanket cloaking the sky above Domino City.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yes, it was a wonderful idea, Yugi decided.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He abruptly turned on his heel and began walking down the hall.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Over the sound of his own footfalls, he heard Seto's firmer ones behind him.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Where are you going?" came the genuinely curious question.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Outside," Yugi replied, bright and matter of fact.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"... It's raining."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I know."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Why do you want to go outside?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"It's raining."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Now at Yugi's side, Seto made a low sound. He was looking at Yugi's face, probably trying to decide if Yugi were serious or not. He was, and Seto didn't seem inclined to stop him.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>When he reached the sliding glass door, Yugi bent to tug his socks off. Seto simply watched him with those pensive blue eyes of his. Wiggling his bare toes, Yugi beamed up at him. "You're more than welcome to join me."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto made some sort of sound in response, but Yugi couldn't decipher it over the hiss of the sliding door.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Outside, the air was crisp and damp and electric with the smell of ozone. It was going to storm. Yugi padded out farther onto the patio. He tipped his head up, relishing in the cool droplets splashing onto his face. He could feel it soaking into his hair to tingle at his scalp. He wiggled his toes again, this time against the smooth, slick wood planks beneath him. He sighed again, imagined his breath fogging into the rain, becoming the rain. Water clung to his lashes when his eyes opened, just in time to see a figure appear to his left.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He turned his head. It was Seto, barefoot, too, his head tipped back for his eyes to survey the clouds high, high above them. Water trickled down his pale face, twined around his firm jawline, and slithered down the defined lines of his neck. Yugi blinked. He knew Seto was handsome, but at some moments it simply struck him harder than at others.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He reached out, let his pinky touch Seto's, and Seto flexed his finger to link them together at that small point of contact. Yugi stepped forward, the soles of his feet wetly kissing the wood of the patio, and he gently tugged Seto by his pinky. Seto followed, drifting like a balloon on a string. Together, they descended the steps, onto the pathway, then onto the manicured grass. Seto's nose wrinkled. And Yugi laughed.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"It tickles," Seto grumbled, the slightest pink of a blush gleaming through the water on his cheeks.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"It does," Yugi agreed. He tugged on Seto again, until they were close, shoulder-to-shoulder, arms pressing against one another. Through the wet layers of their clothing, Yugi could feel Seto's warmth. Together, they stood there in silence, watched the clouds drift high above in a sea of gray, felt the wet grass beneath their bare feet, and heard the infinite droplets fall down from their heavenly perches to land on hair and skin and fabric and ground.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>This time, when Yugi sighed, he could swear he felt Seto do the same, in unison. Seto's pinky squeezed his for a brief, tender moment. Yugi's lips curved into a smile.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>In the distance, thunder rolled like a muffled cymbal crash. Far away but growing closer, veins of lightning flashed starkly against that dim backdrop.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Still, they watched the sky until the thunder began to grow louder, the lightning brighter.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto's sigh was much more obvious this time. "We should probably go inside."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi hummed and slipped his finger from the embrace of Seto's. "Race you there!"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"You little--"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi was already off, feet slapping wetly, rain and blood roaring in his ears as he laughed in time with the thunder. He was a foot away from the threshold when arms banded around his waist, when hands curled into his soaked shirt. He squealed, and he could hear Seto's playful growl as he easily hefted Yugi up into his arms. Yugi kicked, head falling back against Seto's shoulder with his laughter. Lips, so warm compared to the cool rain, fluttered against Yugi's cheek in a chaste kiss.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Inside, out of the rain, Seto adjusted Yugi in his arms, until they were face to face, and their noses hardly brushed before Yugi was leaning into Seto's lips.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"You make me do the craziest things," Seto sighed between kisses, his breath tickling Yugi's wet face and his big hands splaying on Yugi's small back.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"But you love it," Yugi whispered back.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto didn't say anything, but his sweet kisses were answer enough.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Of course he did.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>WHO ARE YOU KIDDING, SETO. YOU DO CRAZY SHIT ON YOUR OWN ALL THE DAMN TIME.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Someone Special (Rivalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ah, Rivalshipping. An absolutely wonderful follower requested some jealous!Rivalshipping, and I decided that Seto would be the most reactive when it comes to being jealous. Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p></p><div class="">
  <p>All these years later, Seto could admit that Yugi was undeniably charismatic. There was a friendly familiarity about him that put even strangers at ease. This was by no means lessened when Yugi was on camera, and especially when he was being interviewed. He was raw kindness, dorky humor, and tinkling laughter, and his greatest strength was baring the vulnerable human parts of himself without fear of pain or betrayal, and, on screen, it made him simply magnetic in ways few others were.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>So, on some level, Seto could understand why the interviewer, a slick Duel Network correspondent, was so enamored with Mutou Yugi. Yugi was just being Yugi; open and honest and sociable, but the interviewer's single-minded drive to make Yugi laugh and divulge intimately personal details was making a vein in Seto's temple throb.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>On the screen, they were still chuckling at Yugi's previous answer when the interviewer clicked his pen and shifted into a more comfortable position. He regarded Yugi with what Seto could only call <em>bedroom eyes</em>.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"So, Yugi-san--" He still hadn't dropped the honorifics despite Yugi's request. "-- is there a lucky special someone watching this interview and waiting for you to come home?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto's teeth ground together. What a smarmy son of a --</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But Yugi's face softened, his smile turning into something tender and... happy.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Yes, actually," Yugi replied, glowing quietly like a flower blooming in the early hours of dawn.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The interviewer paused, surprise washed into the lines of his face. Then, he shifted so seamlessly from a bachelor on the prowl to a reporter trying to snatch up the juiciest scoop. He leaned forward, eyes gleaming with a different kind of hunger. "Oh really? Who's this special person?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi's lips curled into something more teasing, mischievous, almost. "This person requested that our relationship be kept to the utmost level of privacy. I am going to respect their wishes," and he said this with a smaller, gentler smile. "I'm sorry."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The interviewer slumped visibly. "You're really going to drop something that juicy and then refuse to tell me any more?"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug, a sheepish grin on his face.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"You tease," the interviewer pouted, back to playfully flirtatious.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But Yugi only laughed.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto's hand clenched into a fist, but his heart raced, hot and exhilarating, in his ribcage.</p>
  <hr/>
  <p>Yugi's little stunt on live television brought down the media's attention hot and hard on his back. They were leaving KaibaCorp after a conference meeting when they were swarmed by a flock of flashing lights and jostling bodies.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Yugi-san!"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Mutou-san--"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi smiled sheepishly at them, and he pointedly ignored Seto's stare.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But Seto couldn't bring himself to be angry at Yugi.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto was angry at the paparazzi, at that greased-up fool from the Duel Network, at himself, most of all.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi gasped when Seto's hand caught at his shoulder, then the other at his waist to bring him closer. The people surrounding them went still and silent for that long moment that Seto clutched Yugi close to press a gentle and tender but no less heated kiss to his lips. If anyone was taking pictures, Seto could no longer hear or see it, because, as always, Yugi's lips hazed Seto's senses like a pleasant, sleepy ray of sunshine.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But they they separated, and Yugi blinked up at him with those beautiful eyes.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Seto released him slowly, then turned to face the crowd surrounding them. His lip curled into a sneer.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"It's me. Now leave us the hell alone."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>A pause.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The paparazzi erupted louder than ever.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Kaiba-san--!"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"How long--!"</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Dammit.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Kaiba Seto has all the impulse control of a rabid badger. Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Superhero (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was for a drabble challenge I reblogged. The prompt requested was 97) "I don't need a hero. I need a husband." with Puzzleshipping. While this could very easily have been taken as an angsty prompt, I really didn't feel like writing anything angsty at the moment. So I made it domestic fluff instead! lmao</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p></p><div class="">
  <p>Preparations were well under way. A lot of food needed to be prepared, but most of it was done and looking delicious. Atem patted himself on the back. In the years since regaining a mortal body, he had become quite the home chef. He could cook just about anything and cook it well as long as he was determined to do so.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Baking, on the other hand, was a whole different breed of dog. Throw stuff together, toss it in the oven, and it either turned out, or it didn't. It was like magic, and Atem simply couldn't wrap his head around it.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Which was why baking the cake was left to the professionals.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>So, instead, Atem busied himself with the final touches on the plates and trays and bowls of food.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"I will definitely not be able to carry all of these myself..." Atem muttered.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>"Did someone call for a hero?!" came the loud, melodramatic shout, and in a flash of colorful clothing and hair, Yugi bounced into the kitchen.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Startled, Atem nearly dropped the spatula.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi didn't seem to notice as he tossed his shoulders back and set his hands on his hips in a proud stance. Honestly, he looked rather silly with the long cape hanging limply behind him rather than billowing epically in some fierce wind. "I have come to save the day," he declared staunchly.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem paused, looked him up and down with a faux bland expression. "Hm, no. I don't need a hero. I need a husband."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi pursed his lips, arched his brow, and returned Atem's sweeping glance with one of his own. "Well, I mean... if the position is open," Yugi drawled flirtatiously.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Atem simpered, smoldering, giving Yugi that half-lidded look that usually preceded a romp in the sheets. "Oh, I have several open positions that you could fill." Yugi's lips parted, cheeks flushing, but Atem rolled from one persona to the next so seamlessly as he lifted a hand to fix the collar of Yugi's costume. "You look good. She's gonna freak."</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi beamed then, brightly, looking every bit the heroic protagonist. "I'm glad I could find a costume in time." He was dressed as their young daughter's favorite superhero, as she had requested that the character make a showing at her birthday party.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But Atem eyed Yugi with a warm fondness. "You'd be a superhero without one, too," he murmured and leaned close to press a kiss to Yugi's cheek.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yugi was <em>everyone's</em> superhero, but he was <em>Atem's</em> husband.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Goddamnit, Flirty Atem! Go back to your hole before I hit you with a broom! *shakes broom at mental manifestation of Flirty Atem*</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Ya Like Jazz? (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I got an ask for Puzzleshipping with the drabble challenge prompts 99) "You got a cute butt." and 100) "I just got out of the shower, I can't dance. What if my towel falls off?" (like more than a week ago but I finally got around to it!)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yugi was not an uncleanly person. Growing up, his room had always been neat and organized, and he’d always been willing to help his grandfather with any household chores, including cleaning. However, that didn’t mean he liked it. Oh no, he abhorred cleaning, especially deep cleaning, which was why he tried to keep everything from getting dirty or cluttered in the first place. It just seemed smarter to nip it in the bud before it became a huge problem.</p><p>Of course, that was easy when he was a kid with only a small bedroom that he truly had to worry about maintaining.</p><p>Then, adulthood hit.</p><p>It was harder to do make sure everything stayed clean when he had an entire apartment to keep under control, especially with his busy schedule.</p><p>And while Atem was always helpful when it came to cleaning, he despised it even more than Yugi himself. (Yugi had the faint premonition that it was some left over royal brattiness on Atem’s part, but he never dared say such a thing to Atem’s face.) While Atem excelled at the manual labor of cleaning – the mopping and sweeping and vacuuming and the dishwashing – he was surprisingly lacking in the decluttering department. He got flustered by the mess, and stressed himself out with the thoughts of <em>where the hell does this </em>go and <em>who does this even belong to</em> or <em>where on earth should I even put this. </em>Yugi, meanwhile, excelled at organization and tidiness.</p><p>So, they divided their cleaning into three phases. The first phase, Yugi swept through and decluttered what he could without the deep cleaning. The second phase, Atem came through and busted ass with most of the manual labor (though Yugi often helped where he could, though Atem equally often shooed him off). The third phase, Yugi put in the final touches.</p><p>They were in their third phase, and Yugi was organizing the shelves with the movies and books on them while Atem was in the shower washing off the sweat and grime he thought he had accumulated throughout his duties.</p><p>Yugi had the radio playing, one of the channels that Atem liked. Smooth jazz alternated with swinging beats, and Yugi found himself playfully swinging his hips to each. He didn’t hear the bathroom door open, but he saw the movement out of the corner of his eye.</p><p>Atem stepped out in a cloud of steam, one towel wrapped around his waist, another held to his hair, sagging and dripping down to his wet, bronzed shoulders.</p><p>Beneath the hanging blond bangs, his carmine eyes were smiling warmly at his boyfriend.</p><p>Yugi blushed, caught in the act. But his lips quivered around an amused smile. “Hey, Atem. Ya like jazz?”</p><p>Atem frowned then, thoughtful. “Well, yes. I mean… I thought you were… aware of this.”</p><p>Yugi snorted then and shook his head. Right, Atem wouldn’t get the reference.</p><p>Yugi would have to fix that at a later date.</p><p>“Well, come dance with me,” Yugi invited, drifted closer, <em>feeling</em> the warm aura of that steam, of the heat of the shower emanating from Atem’s nearly naked body.</p><p>“I just got out of the shower. I can’t dance; what if my towel falls off?” Atem replied, head tilting to one side, hair brushing and clinging lower on his shoulders and torso. His smile was twitching steadily into a teasing grin.</p><p>Yugi shrugged, closer, close enough to <em>smell</em> Atem’s mouth-watering body wash and his soothing natural scent. “I don’t think that would be so bad. You got a cute butt.” He plucked a finger playfully at where the terry cloth laid tight against Atem’s toned, humid navel. His breath <em>visibly</em> caught. “Though, it <em>would</em> be fun to see how long you can manage to keep it on…” Yugi, head still tilted down, looked back to Atem through his lashes.</p><p>Atem’s eyes narrowed at the blatant – and blatantly flirtatious – challenge.</p><p>“Game on, Aibou.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Do I take advantage of these asks to throw my headcanons at you?</p><p>Yes.</p><p>Yes, I do.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Steamy (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ah, a request for awkward, sexual-tension-filled pre-relationship Puzzleshipping in an onsen. This turned out a little more humorous than I had intended, but I hope you like it anyways!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The air was heavy and wet, fogging the lungs with each inhale. It smelled thickly of steam and rock and oils. Yugi shivered with giddy excitement. It had been <em>ages</em> since the last time he’d been to an onsen. Thinking of it, it was perhaps during middle school, when Grandpa had saved up money for them to have a little getaway before he started his next year of school.</p><p>That was… that was… Yugi frowned, eyes rolled upwards, mentally calculating. That was five years ago.</p><p>Damn.</p><p>He was getting old.</p><p>(Grandpa would give him a noogie if he heard Yugi’s thoughts.)</p><p>And this was a <em>nice</em> onsen. Luxurious. Opulent, even. Access to the place probably would have taken a nice bite out of Yugi’s budget, but, thankfully, he didn’t need to worry about that; he’d won the tickets from a community checkers tournament. He’d gone relatively unchallenged (he felt very guilty for wiping the floor with those little old ladies and elderly gentlemen, but <em>dammit</em>, he deserved to go to an onsen, too!), save for Atem, who put up fierce competition, but only ended up in second.</p><p>Which was perfect – they’d both entered with hopes that at least <em>one </em>of them would win.</p><p>(Atem still pouted about his loss whenever the subject came around, though.)</p><p>So Yugi won the two tickets, and Atem got the second-place prize: coupons from a famous local food kiosk.</p><p>Yugi sank into the hot water. He hissed as it stung his nerves pleasantly, steam wafting up around his face. He hummed and stirred his arms. The warm current brushed pleasantly along his skin.</p><p>“That’s the good stuff,” he sighed, leaning his head back on the edge.</p><p>Several minutes went by. Yugi cracked an eye open.</p><p>Where was Atem?</p><p>He’d said he was going to start getting ready right after Yugi. Was he still in their room?</p><p>Yugi huffed and closed his eye. Whatever. Atem’s loss.</p><p>But then the bamboo-framed sliding door creaked along its track, and Yugi cracked his eye open again. Only to immediately squeeze it shut.</p><p>
  <em>Atem was naked.</em>
</p><p>Of course he was naked! Why wouldn’t he be?!</p><p>
  <em>But Atem was naked.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Yugi was naked.</em>
</p><p>Yugi’s heart was thundering in his ears, too loud for him to hear Atem padding to the edge of the bath.</p><p>
  <em>They were going to be naked together.</em>
</p><p>Yugi wanted to slap himself. Not more than a year ago, they were sharing a body. Surely, sharing a bath wasn’t as momentous?!</p><p>
  <em>It felt very momentous.</em>
</p><p>Because now Atem wasn’t some metaphysical presence lurking in the corner’s of Yugi’s mind and soul.</p><p>Atem was a person, with his own body. Atem was a man.</p><p>A very, very <em>attractive</em> man.</p><p>
  <em>And he was naked right now.</em>
</p><p>Yugi gulped thickly.</p><p>He’d known for a long time that he loved Atem. For most of that time, it was an innocent, pure love, wholesome to the core. But in recent years – and now, more than ever – Yugi realized there was <em>more </em>to his love for Atem. Something physical, something carnal, something that made Yugi want to <em>touch</em> and <em>kiss </em>and –</p><p>“Yugi,” Atem snapped, apparently impatient, and he swiped his hand over the surface of the water to splash Yugi’s face.</p><p>Yugi spluttered, “H-Hey!” and lifted his hands to shield his face. “No splashing!”</p><p>“Well, you were ignoring me. I don’t know what you were expecting,” Atem replied, indignant and haughty. <em>Brat.</em></p><p>“Sorry,” Yugi mumbled, wiping the water from his eyes. “I didn’t mean to.”</p><p>He looked up. Thankfully, Atem was submerged to his sternum in the steaming water. But even from the chest up, the view of him made Yugi’s heart thump away in his chest like a caged bird.</p><p>Softly gleaming bronze skin, the elegant lines of his collarbone, the pretty structure of his neck, the sharp angle of his chin and jaw…</p><p>The blush glowing on his cheeks, perhaps from more than just the heat.</p><p>Yugi’s heart jumped into his throat. But he found himself relaxing.</p><p>Atem was affected, too.</p><p>Yugi always felt better when he wasn’t alone, and it was about time that he realized that, with Atem…</p><p>… He was never alone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>What took Atem so long? Idk, man. (he was definitely having a similar breakdown in their room before he came out)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Massage (Revolution/Vanishshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ahhh, so someone requested some Yami/Tea|Anzu with a foot rub and I have never written this ship before, so please bear any awkwardness. Thank you!</p><p>Also, I love sassy Anzu, so I brought as much sassiness to the table that I could.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Ughhhh,” Anzu groaned, flopping back dramatically on the couch.</p><p>Atem gave her an amused side-eye but moved his arm aside to let her drape her feet on his lap. His hand settled on the top of one ankle, fingers elegant, warm, dark, and firm against her pale skin.</p><p>“My feet hurt,” she whined, nudging at his hand. His thumb swiped over the joint of her ankle, and she struggled to hide the shiver that raced tickled through the skin and up her sciatic nerve.</p><p>His breath huffed through his nose in something resembling an airy chuckle, and the gust of it wafted against her leg. “I told you that you should have worn better shoes for it.”</p><p>“Shoes are for lame capitalists. I’ll keep my sandals.”</p><p>He laughed, head turning against the back of the couch to look at her. His blond hair fanned against his cheek and jaw, and his shapely lips settled into a wry but delighted grin.</p><p>Damn, why was he so <em>pretty</em>? It was unfair in <em>so</em> many ways.</p><p>“I agree that sandals are the bomb, but you should find ones with better arch support.”</p><p>“Who are you, my mother?” Anzu grumbled, and she wiggled her foot under his relaxed hand again.</p><p>She couldn’t help but laugh at his “I certainly hope not.”</p><p>“All the walking was <em>your</em> idea, so you should give me a foot massage.”</p><p>“I don’t follow that logic,” Atem said, but his fingertips were already dragging down the top of her foot, and his thumb stroked a firm line up the sole. Her toes curled on reflex. He leaned forward the slighted bit – blond fringe falling to obscure all but his nose and a glimpse of his chin – propped her foot up just right, and began to knead. Her foot looked so pale and delicate in his dark and, though smaller to fit his stature, undeniably masculine hands. His thumbs dug into the meat of her arch and with small, deep rubbing motions, walked his thumbs up her sole towards her toes.</p><p>When an ache in her fingertips caught her attention, she realized that her hands had begun to clench into the worn leather of the couch.</p><p>And then he firmly cupped her foot in one hand and, with the other, began to gently grind his knuckles into the tender arch. Her foot jerked reflexively – but he had her caught – and she sank her teeth into her lower lip. Damn, that kinda fucking hurt, but at the same time, it felt so good to work out all those deep aches.</p><p>She noticed movement – his head turning to catch a glance of her – and the slight curl of his lips.</p><p>
  <em>The bastard was smirking!</em>
</p><p>“That’s enough,” she croaked, tugging her foot from his grasp.</p><p>Their eyes meet for a long, silent moment, and the only thing Anzu could think about was how warm and relaxed her foot was.</p><p>She sighed. “Please do the other one, too.”</p><p>He licked his lower lip to hide that damn grin. “Of course, milady.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Funny story: I am actually renowned in my family for my foot rubs, and some of my family members will go to ridiculous lengths to get me to give them a foot massage. Example: I once told my older sister that I would give her a foot rub if she ate a dill pickle slice on top of a spoonful of baked beans (she <em>hates</em> pickles) AND SHE DID IT LMAO It ruined beans for her for several months XD It was so funny, and I'm probably a sadist for taking pleasure in her abject disgust over the whole situation, but what are sisters for? lol</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Steamy pt 2 (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Someone requested Atem's side of Steamy, the puzzleshipping onsen oneshot. So, here you go!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The floorboards were a beautifully dyed dark wood, overlaid with finely made tatami mats. The bamboo door frames were simple, but the minimalism was pleasing to eye with all the clean lines and understated edges. It was a beautiful room, a fine room, but Atem could hardly appreciate it as he practically wore tracks in the mats from his frenzied pacing.</p><p>He ran a sweaty, shaking hand through his hair and disheveled it even more.</p><p>The gravity of the situation had remained at bay until Yugi had announced his intention to wash up before he went to partake of the onsen. Up until that moment, nothing had been wrong. Everything was going well. Yugi had won the tickets, they were going to enjoy a weekend getaway from the city at a nice spa, and they were the best of friends and Atem could feasibly keep his pining to himself and there wasn’t an issue.</p><p>And then he’d realized the extent of the situation. The enormity of it. The utter status-quo destructivity of it.</p><p>
  <em>Yugi was going to be naked. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Atem was going to be naked. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>They were going to be naked together. </em>
</p><p>Immediately, a part of Atem, the stubborn, scared part of Atem, the part of Atem that didn’t want to jeopardize his once-in-two-lifetimes soul-deep (literally) friendship with Yugi, dug in its heels. Ears back, teeth bared, legs braced, like a mule unwilling to move no matter how hard its lead was tugged.</p><p>He couldn’t handle that – he’d just stay inside – he couldn’t make a fool of himself if he wasn’t around –</p><p>But he <em>knew</em> he couldn’t do that. Firstly, it would be <em>suspicious</em>, considering how eager he was about coming here, too. And secondly… he couldn’t do that to Yugi. If Atem suddenly started avoiding him, Yugi would surely notice, and then it would hurt him, and if there were anything in the world Atem loathed the most, it was when Yugi got hurt, physically or emotionally.</p><p>Curses hissed on Atem’s lips. Why was he making such a huge deal out of this? It, in honesty, wouldn’t be the first time he saw Yugi naked – it would be impossible to share a body so long without him accidentally catching a glance once or twice. Besides that, what could be more intimate than literally <em>wearing Yugi’s skin? </em>Atem’s own will had, at one point or another, pervaded every fiber of Yugi’s being. Atem knew how Yugi’s body moved, from inside and out, how the muscles and joints shifted, how limbs settled, the way it felt to balance each step in Yugi’s shoes. He knew Yugi and his body in ways so profound, in ways that no one else ever would – ever <em>could</em>.</p><p>Atem gulped, harshly pressing his hands to his eyes as the beginnings of sweat prickled his skin. The train of thought was supposed to calm him down, but it was doing the fucking <em>opposite</em> because now his hormone-addled brain was framing every bit of it in an erotic light.</p><p>He took a deep, shaking inhale, and nodded resolutely into his palms.</p><p>He was going to do this. He’d faced dark gods, the embodiments of evil, the harbingers of the apocalypse. Seeing his best friend – and the man he was hopelessly in love with – naked was <em>nothing.</em></p><p>(It felt like <em>everything</em>, though.)</p><p>And everything in his head ground to a screeching halt when he eventually slid that door open after washing up.</p><p>Yugi was there, relaxing in the steam curling and clouding around him invitingly. His head was tipped back against the rim of the bath, and his bared throat <em>gleamed</em> with moisture, moisture that stunned Atem because his mouth was suddenly <em>dry</em> despite the humidity clinging to the air. His blond bangs clung like veins of gold to his cheek and jaw. Serene, he looked like some mystical vision brought forth by smoke and wine.</p><p>Yugi peeked an eye open just for a moment, a flash of violet, and Atem <em>saw</em> it.</p><p>Tension along Yugi’s shoulders, along his arms propped up on the bath’s rocky edge, along the line of his bare chest that made Atem’s face and hands <em>ache</em> in a manner he could scarcely describe. And then Yugi’s eye was squeezing shut as quickly as it opened.</p><p>Heart pounding in his ears and face flushing hot from more than just the steam, Atem waded into the pool – hissing as the heat tingled his nerves – and sank down to his chest.</p><p>Yugi was unmoving for several seconds, scarcely breathing, one eyebrow furrowing inward millimeter by millimeter.</p><p>Atem just couldn’t take the silence.</p><p>“Yugi,” he croaked, then immediately cleared his throat. No response.</p><p><em>By the divines, he’s naked</em> – and Atem forced the thoughts from his brain with a snappish <em>“Yugi”</em> as he swiped a hand over the surface of the water to splash Yugi’s face and neck.</p><p>Yugi spluttered, jolting and gasping, hands jerking up to protect his face. “H-Hey! No splashing!”</p><p>Atem settled back, biting back the way his lips wanted to purse. “Well, you were ignoring me. I don’t know what you were expecting.”</p><p>“Sorry,” Yugi mumbled, cutely wiping the water from his eyes. “I didn’t mean to.”</p><p>Yugi looked up then, and Atem <em>saw</em>. Saw how Yugi’s lips, glistening in the gentle light with water, parted, like he was <em>thirsty</em>, but he was staring at Atem, and Atem’s cheeks burned brighter alongside the fire in his heart.</p><p>
  <em>Yugi felt the same.</em>
</p><p>The tension fled the both of them. They relaxed into the water.</p><p>Of course, Yugi felt the same.</p><p>Atem kept his smile small.</p><p>But they could worry about it later.</p><p>They had an onsen to enjoy.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ah, Atem, you gorgeous mess. Glad you finally pulled your head out of your ass and took a gander at what's going on around you, you dork.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Tease (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Someone requested some Spicy Puzzleshipping with Yugi in booty shorts and I am here to deliver.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hand over his mouth covered his breathless smile. He twisted, turned, contorted his body to better view it in the mirror. He bit down on his laughter. It… kind of looked silly, but, at the same time… damn. He looked good.</p><p>Hopefully, Atem would think the same.</p><p>He padded out of the bedroom, into the living room. He couldn’t help <em>strutting,</em> because holy shit, his legs felt like a million dollars in these shorts. They were <em>tight</em> and awkward in other places, too, but hopefully it would be worth it.</p><p>Atem, seated at the table with his laptop open and his headset on, visibly tensed when he caught sight of Yugi. He jabbed a finger at his headset – probably muting himself for his meeting – and stared with incredulity (and more than a little appreciation). “<em>What</em> are you wearing?”</p><p>Yugi sucked his lips in – holding back a <em>cackle</em> – and looked down at his crop-top and booty short ensemble. “… Clothes…?” The word was strained with repressed laughter.</p><p>Atem’s brows furrowed and his lips pressed together. “You’re not funny.”</p><p>
  <em>Au contraire, my love, I think I’m <strong>hilarious</strong>. </em>
</p><p>“I’m not trying to be funny,” Yugi replied with both his words and his best attempt at an innocent smile, though with the way Atem’s eyes narrowed dangerously, it came off as anything but <em>innocent</em>.</p><p>“I’m trying to work,” Atem continued, stern, but Yugi saw how his eyes wandered, down to the bare expanse of Yugi’s pale, slender legs.</p><p>“I’m just going to be cleaning up a little. Nothing too loud, but please tell me if I’m disturbing you,” Yugi purred, winking and turning away. Atem’s eyes were <em>burning</em> into him.</p><p>
  <em>If my clothes bother you so much, come rip them off, Atem.</em>
</p><p>Every time there was something on the floor, Yugi made sure to bend, spreading his legs a little so that the tight denim shorts didn’t pinch him in places that would probably make him cry. Of course, his backside just so <em>happened</em> to be facing Atem each time. What a coincidence. When he had to reach up to put things away on shelves, Yugi’s spine would just so happen to curve just right, enough to press his butt out and his chest forward so that the hem of the crop-top would climb up his torso just the right amount, flashing ribs to the room, empty save for those rapacious red eyes trying not to devour his every motion and failing spectacularly.</p><p>Yugi struggled to keep his smirk at bay. He couldn’t help it – he felt so <em>powerful</em>, wielding his sexuality like a weapon to cripple and devastate enemy forces.</p><p>Not that Atem was his enemy. No, Atem was his sweet, stubborn, beloved boyfriend, but Yugi would be lying if he said it didn’t feel good to make Atem suffer sometimes.</p><p>Yugi “accidentally” dropped a DVD case on the floor. “<em>Oh</em>,” he gasped in faux surprise, and perhaps the sound was a little too breathy, a little too thin and airy for this context, but Yugi continued on, making a low, pleased hum as he bent to pick it up. Then a sigh, sultry and sensual, as he stretched and arched to put it back in its proper place on the shelf.</p><p>A loud crinkle caught his attention, and he peeked over his shoulder.</p><p>Atem’s hand was balled into a fist on the table, a piece of paper clenched in his white-knuckled grip. His jaw was working furiously as he fought the urge to clench it, and his eyes burned like twin infernos as they traced the line of Yugi’s legs to his ass, then up his back.</p><p>Yugi shivered, feeling that gaze like a ghost of a touch.</p><p>He wanted to just throw himself into Atem’s lap already, but he didn’t want to disturb Atem’s work any more than he already had (he wanted the torture to go on, just a little longer).</p><p>Atem tore his eyes away, replying to someone in his virtual meeting, but his eyes flicked back to Yugi.</p><p>Head high, hips cocking with each step, Yugi sauntered into the kitchen, still in Atem’s line of sight from the dining table.</p><p>He poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher in the fridge. He lifted his hand to lick a nonexistent stray droplet from his thumb.</p><p>Truly, he was distracted by Atem himself, distracted with his teasing, so what happened next was by no means on purpose, but it played right into Yugi’s plan. He miscalculated the rim of the glass, so instead of taking a sip of water, he dumped a little on himself – pouring down his chin and jaw and neck to slick his shirt to his chest.</p><p>He gasped again (more like a suggestive mewl) and set his glass on the counter. “Oh, I’m all wet now.”</p><p>Atem’s laptop slammed shut, and then the next thing Yugi knew, he was being crowded up against the kitchen counter. Atem was a blistering hot aura against his back. Humid, ragged breaths against Yugi’s neck, strong, desperate, desirous hands digging into the flesh of his thigh, of his waist, then into his hair to crane his neck for hungry lips and teeth to drag at his throat and just under his ear.</p><p>This time, Yugi’s mewl was anything but staged.</p><p>“<em>Yugi</em>,” Atem growled, breathless, tongue swiping out to lap up a droplet of water on Yugi’s neck. “You little <em>minx</em>.” The hand at Yugi’s thigh dragged down to grip just under his knee, and Atem hiked Yugi’s leg up to <em>spread</em> him and brace his knee on the counter.</p><p>“A-Atem,” Yugi gasped, delighted, dizzy with heat, sagging into the fist in his hair, panting as the other hand <em>groped</em> at him – his thigh, his ass, his waist, before it ducked under the edge of the shirt.</p><p>“You may think you’ve gotten what you wanted…” Atem growled into Yugi’s ear, a tangle of teeth and tongue and breath that made Yugi shudder. “…But I’m not going to go easy on you.”</p><p>Yugi moaned.</p><p>As if he were expecting any less.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm not one to shy away from NSFW content, but as all of these pieces are for cross-posting to Tumblr, I kept this <em>just</em> on the SFW side for that. Maybe someday I will open up a work here on Ao3 where I will take 100% NSFW requests. Someday...</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Out of Necessity (Gemshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I reblogged another <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/646930684827631616/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a">kiss prompt thingy</a> and this is the first request from that -- 49, out of necessity for Gemshipping. I have never written this ship before, so tell me what you think!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They were hot on his heels. He tried to maintain a calm but brisk pace, but his heart was pounding hard enough that it felt like it was about to throb out of his chest. The adrenaline was coursing through his veins, and it narrowed his vision and made his feet begin to move faster of their own accord. Before he knew it, he was <em>sprinting </em>down the hallway, not-so-nimbly dodging around his students, his hair a long, pale streamer behind him. As if responding to some predatory instinct to give chase when their prey ran, he <em>heard</em> them running after him.</p><p>This particular brand of high school girl scared the living shit out of him. Surely, the rabid affections of infatuated teenage girls would send Bakura Ryou to an early grave.</p><p>Teachers were yelling after him – and later he would feel immensely guilty for ignoring them – but he continued on his way, destruction in his wake, made of a flock of screeching girls, frothing and frenzied at the thrill of the chase.</p><p>He was quickly running out of hallway, and frightened students were clearing the way for the stampede rumbling through.</p><p>He only had one feasible.</p><p>He bodily threw himself into archway of the stairwell –</p><p>-- and slammed into a firm chest.</p><p>In a tangle of long hair and blue jackets and awkward teen limbs, they stumbled down the last few steps to the mid-level landing and crashed into the wall. Thankfully, they were upright, and his victim was speaking harshly to him, but Ryou was hardly paying attention when he heard the growing din of his approaching pursuers. He clawed his slender hands into broad shoulders, and with burst of adrenaline-induced strength, heaved them the other way, so that the taller boy was cornering him in the stairwell and hiding him with his broader body.</p><p>“Sh, shhhh,” Ryou hissed, hands tightening in the other’s jacket, and his eyes finally rose up to meet his unsuspecting savior’s gaze.</p><p>Dark, smokey lavender eyes smirked down at him from a handsome, scarred face.</p><p>Ryou’s knees would have gone out if he weren’t being bodily pressed against the wall.</p><p>
  <em>Oh no.</em>
</p><p>“Need some help?” that raspy voice rumbled.</p><p>Ryou wasn’t sure what he said, though he wouldn’t be surprised if it had been a helpless whimper.</p><p>But it didn’t matter, because lips were on his with immediate intensity, devouring him. Ryou gasped, and then he was tasting a tongue that wasn’t his. He hardly noticed the flurry of girls cascading down the stairs and into the hallway one half floor down.</p><p>His savior pulled back, lips swollen and glistening, and pearly white teeth flashed in a pleased, triumphant smirk.</p><p>“You know, if you liked me that much, you didn’t have to literally <em>throw</em> yourself at me,” came the purr.</p><p>It took a minute for the words to penetrate the fog clouding his brain, but when it did, the heat in Ryou’s cheeks flared hotter. He swatted at that firm chest.</p><p>“That’s not what it was, and you know it!”</p><p>Calloused fingers clasped at his chin with surprising gentleness, and the next response fluttered on Ryou’s lips –</p><p>“You’ll have to convince me, sweetcheeks.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>the "necessity" part ran away from me a little, but whatever lol</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Love Me Harder (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Another of the second round of <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/646930684827631616/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a">kiss prompts</a>, this time for puzzleshipping for prompt 33, "Forcefully."</p><p>To do something "forcefully" is to do it in an aggressive or assertive manner, and I wrote this with that in mind.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His touch was like the gentlest of precipitation, the kind that one would find on those sleepy spring days, when the sky was gray and the raindrops pattered gently on the roof and beaded delicately on windowpanes, like the sky so badly wanted to touch the earth but couldn’t bear the thought of harming a single blade of grass. It was a quiet passion, thrumming long and low, that captured Yugi’s heart and made it swell until it felt too big for his chest. Each caress of hand and lip was a tender declaration of adoration, and Yugi always did his best to imbue his own touches with the same steady, shivering intensity.</p><p>But sometimes, Yugi strained for more. Soft and sweet was good, but… sometimes Yugi wanted it a little firmer.</p><p>And he <em>knew</em> that Atem could provide. He <em>knew</em> that under that gentle rain, a raging inferno lurked. Yugi wanted a taste of that firestorm, wanted to feel the flames on his skin and at his tongue.</p><p>So, the next time they found themselves tangling ever closer to one another on the couch, Yugi steeled his breath and his courage before his decisive action.</p><p>Atem mouthed at his lips tenderly, his hot hands cradling Yugi’s cheeks, Yugi’s own hands kneading at the back of Atem’s neck. Yugi stroked his thumbs up to Atem’s hairline. Atem’s pleased huff of breath gusted against his upper lip, and Yugi took that as permission to sink his hands into Atem’s thick hair to massage slowly at his scalp.</p><p>Atem’s thumbs were doing their own work, too, skimming reverently over Yugi’s cheek bones. Atem tilted his head, nuzzling sweetly into the kisses.</p><p>Yugi parted his lips –</p><p>-- Then tightened his fingers harshly in Atem’s hair, in tandem with a sharp nip to Atem’s lower lip.</p><p>“Yugi,” Atem gasped. He jolted in Yugi’s grasp, but Yugi could feel the way Atem’s chest heaved faster against his own.</p><p>“<em>More</em>,” Yugi rasped, tightening his hands again, a little rougher, tugging just so on Atem’s hair. He followed it up by pushing his tongue into what was no doubt now a sore spot on Atem’s lip.</p><p>Atem made a noise then, and it was somehow a mixture of a moan of pleasure and a hum like a very, very overloaded computer rebooting.</p><p>“Yugi…” he began, but was interrupted by the throaty noise unfurling from his lips when Yugi tugged again.</p><p>“I want it,” Yugi panted. “Show me.” He didn’t specify <em>what</em>, but he was sure that based on the way Atem’s breath caught, Atem was fully aware to what Yugi was alluding.</p><p>Something rumbled in Atem’s chest. A <em>growl</em>.</p><p>Yugi hardly had the time to shiver before he was being pressed onto his back on the couch cushions with Atem bearing hard on top of him. Atem’s hips against his, his thighs pressing Yugi’s apart, their chests heaving together, Atem’s hot hand pressing one of Yugi’s wrists up against the sofa’s arm.</p><p>Teeth – nipping and scraping – tongue – lashing and demanding – lips – harsh and unyielding – they all assailed Yugi’s senses in a flurry of sharp sensations.</p><p>Yugi mewled happily, tugging encouragingly with the hand not yet commandeered by the hungry beast on top of him, as Atem advanced on Yugi’s sensitive neck.</p><p>Then, a wet, breathy bite at his ear that had Yugi jerking ecstatically against the pleather of the couch. Atem’s voice, rougher than Yugi had <em>ever</em> heard it, washed against Yugi’s eardrum like the relentless tongue of a flame. “Tell me you won’t regret this.”</p><p>“I would never regret this,” Yugi gasped, already struggling for breath. “I want every part of you.”</p><p>Atem surged up to rain his brimstone desire against Yugi’s swollen lips.</p><p>Finally, Yugi was burning, and he couldn’t be happier.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yugi just wants to get WREKT</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Desperately (Rivalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Someone on Tumblr requested a <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/646930684827631616/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a">kiss prompt 10</a> -- "desperately" for Rivalshipping.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One moment, Yugi was standing there smiling in greeting with his arms extended for a hug, and the next thing he knew, he was snatched off his feet into a tight, warm embrace.</p><p>“S-Seto!” he gasped, clinging to the wind-cooled leather of Seto’s long jacket.</p><p>If Seto said anything in response, Yugi couldn’t hear it, but Yugi could feel the breaths stuttering over his ear and across the little hairs on the back of his neck as Seto tucked his face into the crook of Yugi’s shoulder.</p><p>Soft hair slipped between his fingers, his giggles rattled his ribs beneath Seto’s tight grasp, and the denim of his jeans slithered over the leather coat hugging Seto’s waist as Yugi wrapped his legs around him. Breathless with the last vestiges of his surprise and with that bursting warm fondness swelling in his chest, Yugi turned his head against Seto’s to press a kiss to his crown. He smelled like wind and ozone. A contented sigh gusted from eager lungs at that familiar, beloved scent.</p><p>Then Seto was turning, too, and Yugi caught a flash of those brilliant blue eyes before Seto’s long fingers tightened around his ribs to draw him even closer for a kiss.</p><p>It was edged, serrated, this kiss, cutting and tearing through all the time they had spent apart. Yugi’s breath caught, frozen somewhere in his throat, as Seto kissed him with such unadulterated <em>need</em> that if Yugi had been standing, his knees surely would have buckled from underneath him.</p><p>“Seto,” he panted, tilting his head to get closer, to get more of those lips that were so soft despite the harsh words they could produce.</p><p>Seto didn’t say anything in response, but his next exhale sawed roughly from his nose to puff against Yugi’s cheeks.</p><p>
  <em>I missed you, too.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Out of Jealousy or Envy (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A request for <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/646930684827631616/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a">kiss prompt</a> 46 "out of envy or jealousy" for puzzle/blindshipping. I hope you enjoy it! It was super fun to write lmao</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yugi loved Atem, really, truly, deeply. Yugi loved Atem with a fierce strength that could transcend time and matter, that could echo between minds and souls, that could resonate so deeply he felt it in his blood and bones.</p><p>Yugi <em>adored</em> Atem, sweet, loyal, staunch Atem, Atem who advised calmly, Atem who could hold a conversation with anyone, Atem who was a genius in his own right, Atem who had less situational awareness <em>than a pile of fucking rocks. </em></p><p>Yugi frowned into his drink as he watched his boyfriend across the room. Yugi wasn’t even sure who the guy was – even though this was <em>his</em> party – but he was <em>absolutely convinced</em> that the fucker was trying to bag his boyfriend. Atem, as per usual, was absolutely <em>oblivious.</em> In fact, he was talking animatedly, hands gesticulating passionately, eyes focused in that way that made Yugi’s heart flop around and trip over itself like a uncoordinated puppy. Obviously, whatever subject they were discussing struck some chord in Atem.</p><p>The other guy was leaning up against the wall next to Atem in <em>that</em> way, the inviting one, the one with the open posture, with the cocked hips and bowed shoulders and the hand with the elegantly lazy wrist holding a bottle of cheap beer. Dark eyes swept up and down Atem’s form appreciatively, and a clean-shaven chin bobbed in acknowledgement whenever the situation called for it.</p><p>What a <em>slimeball</em>.</p><p>Trying his best to smile genuinely at his guests, Yugi slithered through the crowd to the other side of the room with an affected air of casualness.</p><p>The instant those pretty red eyes caught sight of Yugi, Atem perked up visibly with a bright grin.</p><p>-- <em>unf, how was he so cute –</em></p><p>“Yugi!” he greeted, and Yugi beamed back. He set one hand on Atem’s arm, his fingers curling firmly around that toned bicep, and leaned in.</p><p>His lips pressed softly to Atem’s warm cheek, but his eyes were focused on his adversary…</p><p>… who looked incredibly disappointed.</p><p>
  <em>Good. </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>These two are so dumb, I fucking swear --</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Out of Pride (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Another <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/646930684827631616/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a">kiss prompt</a>, this one for prompt 42, "out of pride" for puzzleshipping.</p><p>this is honestly just a bunch of fluff.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>With a sigh, Yugi closed the door behind him. Just being hope felt like having a huge weight taken off his shoulders, though the work day’s worth of weariness still remained. He just wanted to sit on the couch, cuddle up with Atem, watch a few episodes of their favorite sh—</p><p>“Yugi!” Atem came thundering into the genkan in a flurry.</p><p>Yugi startled, blinking widely.</p><p>Atem was hardly ever this excited.</p><p>But there he was, practically <em>vibrating</em>, his vivid eyes bright like twin rubies, a large, thick envelope clutched in his hands.</p><p>Yugi’s eyes narrowed in on the symbol stamped on the paper.</p><p>“Oh my god” Yugi breathed in unison with Atem’s “It came!”</p><p>“Why haven’t you opened it?” Yugi all but yelled, suddenly overtaken with the same frenetic energy.</p><p>“I wanted to wait until you got here!” Atem all but yelled back.</p><p>“<em>Open it!”</em></p><p>And Yugi pressed close, watching as Atem tore into the tab on the package to get to the papers inside.</p><p>He pulled out the first sheet of paper, eyes hurriedly scanning each and every character. His lips mouthed the words quickly, too quickly for Yugi to pick up on it.</p><p>“What does it say? What does it say?” Yugi kept repeating, practically bouncing.</p><p>Atem froze. His wide eyes cut up to Yugi.</p><p>The stillness was contagious. Yugi could hardly move a muscle. “What does it say…?”</p><p>Atem’s chest expanded with a great breath, and then, on one huge exhale, he blurted, “I was accepted!”</p><p>“OH MY GOD,” Yugi squealed, and he crushed the air from Atem’s lungs when he tackled him into a giant hug, the paper plastered between them. Yugi squeezed tight, and then he was holding Atem’s dimpled cheeks in his hands, and peppering kisses all over his face, saying a bunch of nonsensical praise that all jumbled up, but the meaning was most definitely conveyed.</p><p>
  <em>I’m so proud of you, I knew you could do it, I’m so happy for you.</em>
</p><p>And when Atem dropped the papers to clutch Yugi’s jaw to kiss him <em>properly</em>, his message was clear.</p><p>
  <em>I couldn’t have done it without you, aibou.</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm personally vibing with the idea that Atem got accepted into a prestigious law school or something along those lines.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Where It Hurts/On a Scar (Rivalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Got a <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/646930684827631616/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a">kiss prompt</a>, with the prompts "Where It Hurts" and "On a Scar" for Rivalshipping. I just love my soft bois so much &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The faucet knob squeaked, and water hissed out. Clothing rustled. Foamy bristles scrubbed over teeth. If one listened closely enough, even the humming of electricity could be audible.</p><p>But Yugi was hardly paying attention to any of that.</p><p>In fact, he was hardly even paying attention to what he was doing at that moment. It was all muscle memory – scrub this way, that way, over the molars, around, this way, that way… etc, etc. His eyes were focused on the large mirror – so glassy and pristine that it had once seemed surreal to him – but not on his own reflection. No, he was intently watching the person next to him, sharing space as they both did their nightly pre-bed rituals.</p><p>Seto seemed tense tonight. His shoulders were set stiffly – save when he rolled them, with only a twitch of the lip to bely the grimace hiding underneath his stoic demeanor.</p><p>Yugi’s brows furrowed, and he leaned down to spit the foam from his mouth and rinse the rest out. Then, he was washing his hands – and once again sneaking a glance at Seto in the mirror as the man in question seemed to be just on the verge of twitching uncomfortably.</p><p>Yugi frowned down at his hands as he turned the faucet off. “Are they bothering you again?”</p><p>Seto paused, and Yugi turned his head to meet his gaze as he dried his hands on a towel.</p><p>Those blue eyes were simply staring at him, and Yugi stared back, feeling his face soften, coaxing.</p><p>That cold glacier hue melted into something warmer, deeper – just like they always did nowadays – and Seto nodded silently.</p><p>Yugi stepped close, lifting a hand up to caress Seto’s cheek affectionately. This close, he could smell the warm scent radiating from Seto’s body like an aura. Seto blinked slowly, his lashes kissing the pad of Yugi’s thumb. “Would you like me to rub some of that cream in?”</p><p>Seto nodded again, slow and gentle, beneath Yugi’s hand.</p><p>Yugi smiled then, a soft smile, and he rocked up on his toes to press his lips chastely to Seto’s chin. It was but a moment when Seto ducked his head to press their foreheads and noses together before Yugi sank back down.</p><p>They continued about their routines, and when Yugi ambled into the bedroom, Seto was already lying shirtless on his stomach, his cheek pillowed on his crossed arms.</p><p>Yugi crawled onto the bed, nearly reverent as he straddled Seto’s waist and slowly spread his hands on Seto’s back – striped with scar tissue, faded with age but still so present in every way that mattered. Yes, they were old, but they still got sensitive and ached at times, and Yugi was always more than willing to help.</p><p>He could feel Seto’s deep breaths beneath his palms, and he bent to pucker his lips against a darker mark that curled up near Seto’s shoulder. Seto hummed, purring beneath him, and the sound vibrated through Yugi’s nerves pleasantly. He smiled against Seto’s shoulder and slowly sat up.</p><p>It was bizarre to think that some time ago, Seto would have rather jumped from a helicopter than take his shirt off around Yugi, but those days were a distant memory, and now, Yugi could only revel in the warm intimacy of Seto’s tender vulnerability in his presence.</p><p>Slowly, he sat back up and reached for the jar of specialized cream. He scooped up a bit and warmed it in his hands. Still, Seto shivered when he slathered it on, but it wasn’t long before Seto was melting into the mattress with a pleasured huff.</p><p>Yugi kneaded the ointment into Seto’s flesh, especially the darker or lighter parts that could so easily dry out and get unbearably sore. Seto was sighing and humming and purring beneath the loving attention, but Yugi was enjoying it just as much, if not more. He liked touching Seto like this, feeling him, making him feel better. With that thought, Yugi leaned down to kiss Seto’s cheek for the briefest moment before he returned to the task at hand.</p><p>“Does that feel better?” Yugi asked, now just stroking his fingertips soothingly up and down Seto’s spine.</p><p>Seto just groaned happily in response.</p><p>Yugi smiled then and breathed, “I’m glad.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Because They're Running Out of Time (Sealshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This one is a <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/646930684827631616/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a">kiss prompt</a>, but it isn't a request from anybody. I did this one because I had a really bad hankering to write some Sealshipping kisses and no one and nothing was going to stop me. I chose the prompt "because they're running out of time." I hope you enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Y-Your D-Divinity…” Mahad stuttered, hands braced against sandstone, shoulders hunched over his Pharaoh, whose fingers were clawed into the linen at Mahad’s shoulders, whose lips, warm and wet and <em>hungry</em>, were plying kisses onto his sensitive neck.</p><p>A displeased hum resonated against his thoat, rippled through his nerves, and Mahad shivered hotly. “Mahad…”</p><p>Mahad’s lips twitched, but then he was gasping when teeth were scraping ravenously at a tendon that jumped beneath the attention. Mahad knew the issue – the wrong title on his lips at the wrong time, when they were wrapped up together like this. But the circumstances were different this time, because –</p><p>“At this rate—” A hissing inhale. “—We shall be <em>late</em>, my king.” And he made to speak again, but the words died on his lips when that sly tongue laved a sweltering line up his neck.</p><p>“Just a little longer,” Atem murmured, voice deep and husky and tickling the back of Mahad’s neck and the shell of his ear. And he tugged Mahad down to his lips for a slow, consuming kiss.</p><p>Mahad should have pulled away – but those lips made him weak, made his knees tremble beneath him, made his world sway on its axis.</p><p>They were running out of time, but… Mahad supposed one more kiss wouldn’t hurt.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Seriously, though, you guys. Don't be afraid to request some rarepairs, because I am all about that shit.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Out of Lust (Rivalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A lovely follower on Tumblr requested <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/646930684827631616/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a">kiss prompt</a> 44, "out of lust" for Rivalshipping and I am here to deliver!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His blink was a long, slow thing. It was a rare thing for him, to look so dazed, so glazed over, like his body was there but his mind was a million miles away. Well, it wasn’t a million miles away. In fact, it was just across the hall, through glass windows to a conference room just over there. Yes, it was right there in that room, with that person. With Yugi.</p><p>Yugi laughed at something one of the project managers said. It made his cheeks dimple and his eyes crinkle and his irises <em>sparkle</em>, visible even from these meters away. His chin lifted, and Seto’s eyes couldn’t help following the line of his throat. Though the rest of Yugi’s body filled out deliciously as he matured, his neck had remained delicate, elegant, each line so visible and so graceful. And though they were pleasant to the gaze, Seto <em>knew</em> that those slopes and planes were even better under the lips, under the teeth, under the <em>tongue</em>. He knew intimately the sensation of that throat heaving with pants and gasps as Seto supped on him with all the appetite of a starving beast.</p><p>The employee presenting his report accentuated his point with a tap to the projector screen, but this drew Seto’s gaze from his fixation for only a moment before he was drifting back.</p><p>Yugi gestured emphatically. He was wearing a plaid shirt – red and black – that just <em>barely</em> fit the business casual dress code, but it was fitting for him, in more ways than one, considering how it clung to his shoulders and his biceps when he moved <em>just so</em>.</p><p>Seto’s thumb circled deftly over the nub of his pen, let it dig into the pad as his eyes drank in the way Yugi’s forearms <em>flexed</em> when he reached to pick up a stack of files. That stark pulse of tendon and muscle definition was gasoline to the smoldering crackle building in Seto’s gut and made his mouth flush with saliva.</p><p>His fingers twitched, hands tensing, because he wanted to <em>touch</em>. He wanted to slide his hands under the hem of that shirt, to find that warm, firm, tiny waist beneath, wanted to <em>grip</em> and <em>knead</em>, because Yugi made the hottest sounds when he was getting touched all over, like Seto couldn’t get enough, couldn’t contain himself, because he <em>couldn’t</em>. He really couldn’t, especially when Yugi made that absolutely delectable sound when Seto –</p><p>“I hope this plan is to your satisfaction, Kaiba-sama,” the employee punctuated his speech.</p><p>Kaiba tore his eyes away, elbows propped on the table, folded hands in front of his mouth. He only grunted at first, trying to gather his scattered wits about him, before he replied. “Email it to me. I would like to review it further. There is much to consider.”</p><p>The employee looked pleased, happy to have something that Kaiba would deem to important enough as to require more of his time, but in reality, Kaiba hadn’t been paying the slightest bit of attention. Kaiba waved him and the rest of the team off. Kaiba had an urge to <em>focus,</em> and it wasn’t on their latest hologram project. In fact, the epicenter of his distraction was still across the hall, but this time, when Seto looked to him, Yugi just so happened to be looking back.</p><p>Yugi beamed – his whole face lighting up in a way that always made Seto’s heart stutter in his chest – and waved discreetly.</p><p>Seto gritted his teeth together hard enough to make his jaw ache.</p><p>Oh, the filthy, <em>filthy</em> things he wanted to do to that man.</p><p>By the time he was stalking through the door and across the hall, both the conference rooms were empty save for the two of them.</p><p>Yugi was still smiling at him. “Hi, Seto,” all breathless and giddy, always so happy to see Seto, even though they both lived and worked together. (Seto would probably be tired of himself by now, but he could never seem to get enough of Yugi in any context.) “How was your meeting?”</p><p>Seto hummed, listening but not registering the words spoken to him, not when he was laser-focused on those inviting lips, not when he was sinking his fingers into that soft shirt to drag Yugi close and kiss him with all the hunger stewing in his gut.</p><p>Yugi gasped, but returned it all so eagerly, even when Seto immediately dipped in with his lustful tongue and his demanding teeth. Yugi’s breath hitched, that way it did when their kisses got <em>lewd</em>, and Seto couldn’t resist the urge to reach down and grip a handful of Yugi’s firm ass.</p><p>Yugi broke to kiss to pant, his hips hitching, and Seto took the opportunity to lay waste to that pretty neck he had been so admiring just minutes ago.</p><p><em>“S-Seto</em>…”</p><p>“Yugi,” he growled back, squeezing his handful.</p><p>“W-We’re…” and he cut himself off with his own pleasured huff. “—Anybody could—<em>uh, ah</em> –”</p><p>Unfortunately, he was right. They were still at work, and this was not the time to rip all Yugi’s bothersome clothes off and lick every inch of him.</p><p>Seto gently settled Yugi back to his feet, those his fingers crept up to dip under the hem of Yugi’s shirt and play with the waistband of his pants. “We’re taking tomorrow off,” he husked against Yugi’s lips.</p><p>Yugi, kissed out of his ability to string coherent sentences together, made a confused noise.</p><p>“I don’t plan on either of us being operational when I’m done with you tonight,” Seto clarified on a growl.</p><p>The melting, overwhelmed sound Yugi emitted in response clearly communicated just how <em>on board</em> with the idea he was.</p><p>Seto couldn’t wait until the workday was over.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yugi: *existing*<br/>Seto: Stop that or I will rip the clothes right off your body.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Together (Puzzleshipping -- Rated E)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This chapter contains explicit sexual content.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>WHELP at first I was like "someday I will make a piece for NSFW requests" but it seems like the spice levels have gradually been increasing, so I suppose this was inevitable. </p><p>IN OTHER WORDS, I am now taking NSFW requests. I will simple share the link of the chapter on tumblr rather than the entire drabble for M and up stories. </p><p>Anyways, I shared some <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/648809313869135872/hand-holding">hand holding prompts</a> and someone came right out of the gates to request no. 13, linking hands together during sex for Puzzleshipping. So here we are! I hope you enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sheets rustled rhythmically, and the bed frame creaked with each gentle hitch of Atem’s hips. Their slow, hot kisses had devolved to panting into each other’s mouths. It was hot, so stiflingly hot beneath the sheet and the blanket, but Atem was still pressing closer, closer, the line of his stomach and his chest pressing to Yugi’s. Their sweat adhered them together, as if they would ever want to part.</p><p>Atem made a low noise, one that had Yugi’s nerves trilling and his toes curling, and he adjusted, arching his body just <em>right</em>, until he was grinding into that place that made Yugi’s world feel like it was about to spin right out from under him, lying down or not.</p><p>His head kicked back, digging into the pillow, his lips straining on ”<em>Atem</em>.” One hand slipped from Atem’s slick shoulder and instead fisted the sheets with clenching fingers.</p><p>He couldn’t help the high, breathy noises he was making, not even when he met those smoldering eyes above him, alight with desire and an adoration that made Yugi’s stutter faster in his chest.</p><p>“<em>Yugi</em>,” Atem groaned back, head tilting back just a little, his spine flexing with pleasure. His hand, once braced on Yugi’s hip, crawled away, until his sweat-slippery fingers were brushing over Yugi’s trembling ones to turn his palm up and link their hands together. Their fingers slid together, interlocking in a trembling, ecstatic embrace, just like their bodies.</p><p>And when they broth reached a breathless, mind-wiping climax, their hands remained, clenching around each other, as their foreheads met.</p><p>Panting in the afterglow, with their fingers entwined and bodies slicked together with sweat and other fluids, they were both reminded of the days when they shared the same body in another manner entirely.</p><p>But when they met each other’s eyes again with delighted grins, they both knew that <em>this</em> was so, so much better.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Playing With Each Other's Fingers (Puzzleshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Another <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/648809313869135872/hand-holding">hand holding prompt</a>! This time "playing with each other's fingers" for Puzzleshipping</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Atem had a little fixation. Anytime they sat near each other, one of Yugi’s hands would end up in both of Atem’s, and Atem would hold it so gently, his fingers softly exploring Yugi’s, each crease of the knuckle, every outline of the nail beds, every pad and tendon, like Yugi’s fingers were something worthy of the most devoted study and the most reverent care.</p><p>(Well, really, Atem’s fixation extended to every part of Yugi, from his fingers, to his hair, to the way the muscles and bones shifted under Yugi’s skin, but Yugi’s hands just so happened to be the most accessible part of his body at any given time.)</p><p>It resulted in many similar situations as this, when they were sitting across the table from one another at a café, and Yugi was still perusing the menu as Atem occupied himself with one of Yugi’s hands – which Yugi had habitually proffered. Yugi was long conditioned to find the sensations soothing, and so he sighed his regular breath of relaxed contentment as Atem’s warm thumb pressed up a line of Yugi’s palm to then skim up and trace the undersides of each finger.</p><p>Atem playfully, lightly pressed the pad of his thumb against the edge of Yugi’s nails. It was a weird feeling, almost ticklish and Yugi still hadn’t decided whether or not it was pleasant (even after all this time), so he glanced over the upper edge of the menu to narrow his eyes at his boyfriend.</p><p>Atem just smiled, playing innocent (he didn’t do as good a job as Yugi, the master himself). When Yugi scoffed, Atem then brought Yugi’s hand up to his mouth. His lips, warm and soft, mouthed tenderly at Yugi’s most prominent knuckle in a brief kiss.</p><p>Heat flushed into Yugi’s cheeks – making them sting, and Atem lowered their hands back down to the tabletop.</p><p>“You’re weird, but I love you, too,” Yugi sighed, just as Atem threaded their fingers together.</p><p>
  <em>I wouldn’t have you any other way, Atem.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Only Linking Their Pinkies (Rivalshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/648809313869135872/hand-holding">Hand holding prompt</a>, 16, only linking their pinkies together, for Rivalshipping. Another office setting one for them, because I just love the thought and think they would make a great team.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There weren’t really any assigned seats for the meeting. But, generally, as humans seemed to be creatures of habit, the same people always sat in the same seats, and when the arrangement got switched up – someone new attended the meetings or someone made it early and snatched a prime spot – nasty looks and huffed breaths were tossed around to clearly communicate the displeasure of the displaced colleagues. And this happened fairly often, thought not often to the same people, generally, but any one person could claim that at some point, someone had taken their habitual spot, and they needed to find a new one.</p><p>However, the same could not be said for Kaiba Seto. Of course, he was the head honcho of the place, the chieftain of their corporate tribe, and so a certain level of respect was granted toward his placement of choice. Beyond even that, beyond his clout as their employer and the one who determines their paycheck, he had a less than amicable personality that probably would have ensured that his seat would remain empty for him, boss or no.</p><p>At first, this right, this guarantee of a seat at any particular meeting, was not given to Yugi when he first began his tenure at KaibaCorp as a consultant and, later, as a project manager. In fact, he bounced around quite a bit his first few months – here, there, at one end of the table, at the other, one side to the next, zigzagging about as the situation attempted to reach an equilibrium. He didn’t seem to care, either – he was affable as always, going with the flow and adapting to the situation as needed, and all his new coworkers enjoyed his comfortable presence at their sides.</p><p>Kaiba had a theory that they <em>purposely</em> bounced him about, distributed Yugi around like the office emotional support animal.</p><p>Which, personally, Kaiba didn’t understand. The few times that Yugi incidentally landed beside Kaiba during the meetings, Kaiba felt tense the whole time. Wired. Hyper-aware of Yugi’s every moment.</p><p>It was impossible to relax around the man, for some reason.</p><p><em>At first</em>.</p><p>Somewhere along the line, they grew closer. Closer. <em>Closer</em>, closer than Seto had ever been with a person that wasn’t Mokuba.</p><p>And then they started dating. Of course, they kept it out of their work life as best as they could, but things cropped up sometimes.</p><p>Like, the fact that Yugi’s spot was cemented at Seto’s side during <em>any</em> meeting. Of course, this development had taken time (but not too much time, with the way Kaiba would glare, stone-faced, at his employees when they took the spot that was <em>obviously</em> reserved for Yugi), but it happened eventually. Now, the times when Yugi didn’t end up at Seto’s left side were few and far between.</p><p>Perhaps it would have been more fitting for Yugi to sit and Seto’s <em>right</em> side, but that wouldn’t have let Seto take the liberties that he did during every meeting.</p><p>Under the cover of the table, their hands would seek one another out, settled on the other’s thigh or perhaps on the very edge of the other’s chair. Fingers would brush, slow and quiet and whisper soft, and then their pinkies would interlock, curving and hooking around one another so perfectly, like the edges of jigsaw puzzle pieces clicking together.</p><p>Seto was ambidextrous, but he preferred writing with his right hand, so if they wanted to do this, Yugi would have to sit on his left side. And while it was tempting to do more, to tangle their fingers, to press their palms together, this allowed them to pull away more efficiently if they needed to.</p><p>So Yugi sat next to him, and they linked their smallest fingers together in quiet, affectionate solidarity, and it was Seto’s favorite part of any meeting.</p><p>(And he pretended to ignore his employee’s complaints about the apparent increase in what they described as “pointless” meetings. Of course they had a point. Kaiba Seto would never call pointless meetings.)</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0030"><h2>30. While They're Sleeping (Sealshipping)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ahhhh, someone requested a <a href="https://draconicmaw.tumblr.com/post/648809313869135872/hand-holding">handholding prompt</a> for Sealshipping. This ship makes me so violently happy, I'm not sure how to express it aside from wordless pterodactyl style screeches... I just... love them... so much... T-T</p><p>Prompt 36 -- unconsciously searching out each other’s hand while sleeping</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Atem was long asleep by the time Mahad came to bed. He was snuggled under the covers, his limbs just barely bleeding over onto Mahad’s side of the mattress. His shoulder rose and fell steadily, slowly and deeply. Mahad could even hear the quiet breaths in the silent darkness of the bedroom.</p><p>Already dressed for the night, Mahad padded quietly around the bed. He smiled down at Atem.</p><p>He was laying on his side, one hand resting in the empty space where Mahad should have probably already been, his nose just barely brushing the edge of Mahad’s pillow. Heat bloomed in Mahad’s cheeks – had Atem unconsciously sought out Mahad’s scent in his sleep?</p><p>He shook his head as he delicately peeled back the covers. It didn’t truly matter – Atem was adorable either way. With a careful, gentle hand, he lifted Atem’s arm to slip beneath it.</p><p>Atem shifted the slightest bit, a brow furrowing, but once Mahad’s warmth laid next to him, he settled with a happy, slurred murmur of Mahad’s name. Mahad released Atem’s wrist, and the arm fell limply around his waist. But it didn’t rest there for long, for after a few seconds of touching, Atem’s hand sleepily trailed up to find Mahad’s elbow, then heavily caressed down, along Mahad’s forearm, to his wrist, along the back of his hand, until Atem was curling his fingers over Mahad’s in a loose but no less tender hold.</p><p>Mahad turned his face to smile into his pillow as Atem sighed contentedly, and however much he had arisen from the depths of slumber went away as he sank back into the warm waters of sleep.</p><p>Mahad let his thumb trail a few circles over Atem’s knuckle.</p><p>“I love you.”</p><p>There was no verbal response, but Atem had already said more than enough.</p><p>Exhausted, Mahad let his eyes lull closed as his breathing went even. He fell asleep with Atem’s hand in his.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Come yell at me on my tumblr if you want! I always have open ears and open eyes.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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